Priestley College switched over to a virtualised PRIMERGY and ETERNUS platform to implement a disaster recovery concept and gain higher performance

"Fujitsu and Virtue Technologies have given us access to enterprise-class technology and enabled us to implement a bulletproof disaster recovery platform that would normally be way beyond our budget."

Craig Birtwell
Network and Systems Manager, Priestley College

Priestley College has deployed a Fujitsu server/storage solution across two physically separate buildings to enable disaster recovery, scalability and improved performance.

Customer

Priestley College is a sixth form college in Warrington, Cheshire. It offers a range of A-Levels and Vocational qualifications as well as adult courses. A-Level pass rates have been 99% or better for the past 12 years. In 2014 it became the first dedicated sixth form college in the country to receive STEM-assured status – the only national gold standard for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. A £1.5million technology centre was recently opened while a further £835,000 was invested in a modern science laboratory and computer network upgrade.

Challenge

Priestley College’s aging storage platform could no longer cope with the volumes of data required. It wanted to implement a new server/ storage solution that would deliver better performance and automated disaster recovery.

Solution

The college’s two main server rooms now have have a mirrored solution comprising a FUJITSU Storage ETERNUS DX200 connected to two FUJITSU Server PRIMERGY RX2540. Together, these host 35 virtual machines supporting critical applications and services.

Benefit

Enables optimal availability and avoids hours of downtime by switching between sites at the click of a button

Increases processing power and memory improving performance and making users more productive

Simplifies management and relieves the burden on the three-strong IT team